Where to start
Is your article/blog/site/news source scholarly? Is it reputable? What's the difference?
-Use your own critical skills. Who authored the site? Is there bias? Can you use this research in your own writing and feel good about it?
-Ask a librarian. Ask your professor. Ask a friend! Talk through the elements of why you think this piece of research is valuable.
-Biased information is not useless information. If you understand the thesis of any article or site, you should be able represent it in your own writing, even if it is biased toward one opinion. Defend it, argue against it. Tell the reader why this piece of information is important in the context of your argument.
CrossSearch - find everything
Visit the Libraries' homepage to try our discovery tool, CrossSearch.
CrossSearch provides a single starting point for your research by collecting most of our research resources -- the catalog, research databases, open-access journals and more -- behind a single search box. Once you have begun to search CrossSearch, you can fine tune your results to focus on specific types of resources, publication dates, subject areas, and more.
Scholarly sources - how do you know?
Suggested Databases
- JSTOR Arts & Sciences This link opens in a new window
Journal articles in almost every subject area, including some historical articles back to the 17th century.
- ProQuest Social Science This link opens in a new window
Academic and professional journal articles, dissertations, magazines, and news dealing with a variety of social science fields.
- SocINDEX This link opens in a new window
Journal articles, and citations for books, conference proceedings, and other resources, in the field of sociology.
- Anthrosource This link opens in a new window
Journal articles published by the American Anthropologial Association (AAA).
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a great tool for doing a broad search of scholarly literature on your topic:
- Google Scholar searches across many disciplines.
- Your search results will include a broad range of sources, including journal articles, conference papers, theses, dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, & abstracts.
- Results come from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities & other web sites.
You'll just want to keep some things in mind:
- Coverage is not comprehensive. Many sourcess are hidden in publishers' databases and journals that Google can't search, so you'll want to look at other databases as well.
- Search results can include links to things like high school term papers, so you'll want to evaluate what you find.
You can access advanced search features by clicking the arrow in the right of the search box. These features allow you to refine your search.
Look for the words Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross next to an article. You should be able to access any of these articles through the library's subscriptions. If you come across a source that Holy Cross does not have access to, remember that you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan.
When you are on campus, Google Scholar will automatically show you those Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross links next to articles that Holy Cross has access to. If you are off-campus, you can set your Scholar Settings to show the links for accessing sources through Holy Cross. You can modify your settings by selecting the Settings link in the upper-right corner of Google Scholar webpage.
Click on the Cited by and Related articles links at the bottom of a search result to find relevant articles & books.